Kanji Bee

Thank you for showing interest in Kanji Bee - the fun and efficient way to learn written Japanese!

The app will teach you how to read kanji, the main components of the Japanese writing system. You will learn their meaning, reading, and how they are used in the most important vocabulary.

No previous knowledge of kanji or Japanese vocabulary is required. This version of the app does however assume that you know hiragana and katakana fairly well.

Kanji Bee started its life when I was looking for tools that my son could use for his Japanese studies. No apps really stuck with him, so I decided to write my own. The goal was to provide a game-like experience with a built-in spaced repetition algorithm. As development progressed, I realized that it was becoming my own favourite way to study Japanese. That's when I decided to make it publicly available, and with a more mature audience as the target group (it still works great for kids though!)

Spaced repetition is, simply put, the idea that you should review memorized knowledge just before you forget it. Your first review may come after one day, the next one after three days, and the next one after that after a week. The computer keeps track of your progress and tests your memory at the right time. This makes the learning process more efficient, and it also helps moving what you have learnt from short-term to long-term memory.

You can learn and review 50 kanji for free. We hope that you will find the app as fun and useful as we do. If you do, you have the possibility to learn more through in-app purchases.

All Japanese language content has been developed in cooperation with a native speaker.